Do Aesthetic Design Principles Predict Visual Appeal of a Simple Control Panel?

Abstract

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between a product’s degree of usability and its degree of beauty. Both directions of causality have been demonstrated leading to “what is beautiful is usable” and “what is usable is beautiful hypothesis. Additionally, aesthetic research has demonstrated several principles that elicit a consistent pattern of responses. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between aesthetics and usability by means of a functional prime. Forty participants rated sixteen stimuli manipulated on four aesthetic principles; prototypicality, symmetry, composition, and shape. Mixed results indicate that certain aesthetic principles interact with one another in a functional usage.

Public Perceptions of Normal and Ideal Head Shape: A Crowdsourced Survey Analysis

“…This tool has been widely used to assess a variety of topics ranging from lay perceptions of art to impressions of physician attire. [9][10][11][12][13][14]18,19 Within the field of medicine, it is particularly well suited for plastic surgery where it has been used to assess the public's esthetic preferences. 13,14 Using this tool, we are able to provide clinicians with much needed information regarding the perception of the cephalic index.…”

“…MTurks has been successfully implemented by many investigators in order to gain insight into public preference including topics of esthetic preference. 9-14…”

“…MTurks has been successfully implemented by many investigators in order to gain insight into public preference including topics of esthetic preference. [9][10][11][12][13][14] The distribution of cephalic indices used was determined with the guidance of our statistician colleagues; to avoid selection bias an even distribution across the areas of both the Farkas and Phelan means (CI 70-90) were selected (Table 1, Supplemental Digital Content 1). Fewer heads of more atypical dimensions were represented (CI <69 or >91).…”